Katrín says Arctic changes affect weather and food worldwide

Changes in the Arctic are affecting the world far beyond the region, including weather and food production in India, Katrín Jakobsdóttir told mbl.is at the Arctic Circle Assembly.

Jakobsdóttir has been involved with the Arctic Circle since 2024 as an envoy. She also leads Polar Dialogue, a project bringing scientists and politicians together to discuss research in the world’s icy regions. Now in its third year, the initiative began as scientific cooperation and has grown substantially, she said.

The Arctic Circle Assembly has become the world’s largest Arctic conference, attracting more than 2,000 participants from about 70 countries. Jakobsdóttir said the region’s political importance has grown as global tensions have reached the Arctic, while climate change is unfolding there faster than anywhere else. Melting ice in the region has effects around the world, she said.

At the assembly, Jakobsdóttir is chairing a discussion with Greenland’s Foreign Minister Múte B. Egede and Canada’s Foreign Minister Anita Anand. She is also leading a panel involving Estonia, Norway and the United Kingdom, and will speak with ministers from India and Singapore.

People from 75 countries are attending, she said, because developments in the Arctic have consequences worldwide. At a smaller Arctic Circle gathering in India last year, she learned how melting ice and changes in the Arctic affect weather systems in India, with consequences for agriculture and food production.